There are many wheeled devices such as baby walkers which are self-propelled by an infant or a young child. Such devices are used indoors in the home for exercising and entertaining the infant or child.
A typical baby walker is comprised of a seat or harness which is suspended or supported in frame-like structure. The frame-like structure is mounted on at least four wheels or casters. The infant or child is placed in the seat or harness with his or her legs extending to the ground in a standing or almost standing position. The infant or child may move about in any desired direction in the walker by pushing against the ground with his or her legs.
Unfortunately, these baby walkers provide the infant or child with mobility that enables him or her to gain access to areas in the home which are extremely dangerous, such as stairs, balconies, raised decks and porches, and the like. Moreover, because the infant or child can move about the home in a standing or almost standing position, the infant or child can reach objects such as television sets, video cassette recorders, plants, and other similar objects which can cause the infant or child injury or be damaged by the infant or child.
The prior art has addressed these problems by providing various floor mounted stop member designs. These prior art floor stop members may be used alone as a single unit or in multiple units to provide a predetermined boundary for limiting the movement of a baby walker. When one or more wheels of a baby walker engages a typical stop member, the rolling action of the wheel is stopped thereby preventing the baby walker from moving past or over the stop member.
However, prior art stop members are not designed to be connected to each other when used in multiple units. Unless each of the stop members are permanently fastened to the floor, an infant or child in a baby walker may succeed in dislodging one of the stop members, thus, gaining access to a dangerous object or area.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved apparatus for limiting the mobility of a wheeled device such as a baby walker, which is substantially less likely of being defeated if one of the stop members is dislodged.